Humility.
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Sometimes I've heard myself or another say things like, "I gave this up or that up and returned to the Church." As if our conversion was from our own initiative - or our own doing. Likewise we can sometimes think to ourselves, or even announce to others, that we came to believe by some "intellectual assent" - as if we suddenly got our degree after having learned, all on our own, that God is God, and Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. However, today's first reading from Mass corrects that notion.
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"Consider your own calling... not many of you were wise by human standards, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. Rather. God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, God chose the weak and the lowly and despised and those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God." - 1 Cor 1:26-31
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And if we are tempted to exalt ourselves even about any role we may have in shaming the wise, St. Paul reminds us, "It is due to him (God) that you are in Christ Jesus" in the first place. God first chose us - we didn't first chose Him at all. Hence, we really have nothing we can pride ourselves about, ever.
If I ever aquire any personal greatness it will be because Christ put it there. He makes us greater than we really are.
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If someone ever likes me I never really think it's me they like at all. hahaha
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Don't you love how God uses the lowly, he cracks me up!
You've got that right!
ReplyDeleteChrist takes a shine to riding into town on the backs of donkeys.
:O)
So very, very true...
ReplyDeleteI say this with no pride, at all, because the Faith was pure gift; I did not "acquire it"; it was "hollowed out" within me as a very young child.
It was the wonderful witness of my parents and grandparents, the prayers of Catholic relatives, and the grace of the good Lord...otherwise, I'd be lost.
And I mean it; and I KNOW it:<)!
I am grateful that God has blessed you with the gift of putting together a wonderful blog! I know that I will enjoy visiting here again and again! Praise God!
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